I Am Strong
by Amiisarr
Summary: My name is Haruno Sakura, and this is the story of how I proved myself.


I don't own Naruto

**I don't own Naruto.**

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1!

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"_I wanted to leave here."_

Sakura –

"_I wanted-"_

Sakura, why?

"_-leave here."_

My eyes! Why can't I see?

"_-wanted to leave-"_

It's dark, Saku-

"_I wanted to leave here."_

"_I wanted-"_

"_-to leave-"_

-ra.

"_-here."_

"_-you."_

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2!

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A month ago, we brought Sasuke back. He was unconscious and almost dead, but I managed to stabilize him before we (Naruto and I) carried him back to his mother village.

A week after we brought him back, he finally woke up. It was when I had been freshening up his room, that his eyes cracked open and he groaned.

An hour after he woke up, he talked to me for the first time.

"_You're annoying."_

What?

"_You're annoying."_

Annoying.

A minute after he told me I was annoying, I did something that startled him.

I laughed.

It was a hysterical laugh, but still. I suppose I laughed at myself. I had been hoping that he'd change. That when he opened his eyes, he'd gaze at me and tell me he loved me. That's why I laughed.

How naïve.

"_You're annoying."_

"_You're annoying."_

"_You're-"_

He hasn't changed at all.

"_-annoying."_

A second after I laughed (at my own stupidity) that I walked (_escaped_) out of the room. I could feel his questioning gaze follow me out.

So naïve.

So stupid.

So weak.

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3!

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I decided to make myself stronger. Despite my super-strength and medic abilities, I knew I was still weak. Still useless. So I talked to my shishou about a special trainer. Shishou told me to figure out my element first, so she handed me a special piece of paper and I put my chackra in it.

My element is water.

Water.

So fragile.

Just like me.

"_I wanted-"_

Shishou told me to talk to Anko, in the interrogation unit. Her element is water, she said. Anko is strong. Anko is not useless.

She can help me.

"_-to leave here."_

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4!

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Yesterday, Anko and I left the village to go train in peace, in the woods. Training will be tough, she told me. I must be able to handle it. I must be strong.

Naruto didn't handle my leaving well. He thought I'd be like 'the dobe', and not come back. I told him I'd always be back. He hugged me and wished me good luck.

"_Go get strong, Sakura-chan!"_

Strong.

"_Go-"_

Can I be strong?

"_-get strong-"_

I hope so.

"_-Sakura-chan!"_

Sasuke said nothing when I told him I was leaving. I don't know why I bothered to tell him at all.

Because it was his fault?

Because I still love him?

No. No, I don't love him.

"_I love you with all my heart!"_

Lies. I am lying to myself.

I wish I wasn't.

Or is that a lie, too?

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5!

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Anko was right. Training was tough. I had been gone for a month so far, and every night I went to sleep with at least 2 broken bones. My chackra was slowly running out, even with my full nights of sleep to restore it.

But I was getting stronger. I could tell. I could control water with my (_unbroken_) fingers, and my green eyes were slowly turning an icy blue-gray color. (Or so Anko told me.)

My body was leaner from days of living in the woods, and my pink hair was chopped so short it spiked up, only a little longer than Naruto's.

Finally, I was becoming stronger. Useful.

"_You're annoying."_

"_You're weak."_

Not any more.

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6!

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A year had passed. I was strong. I knew it. Anko had approached me yesterday as I sat twirling a tendril of water with my pointer finger, in front of the lake.

She sat down next to me and watched the water as it twitted around in a playful manner.

"There's nothing else I can teach you," said Anko. I looked over at her, my icy blue-gray eyes calm, just like the water I now had control over.

I let the water I had been playing with fall back into the lake. I didn't respond, but nodded in understanding.

The training had taken a lot from me. It had taken my naivety, my unscathed skin (which was now covered in odd shaped scars, in every place imaginable). A particularly gruesome scar ran over my right eyes, much like Kakashi's, from when I had lost control of my water whip, 7 months ago.

"We can go home now," Anko finished. I got up and began packing.

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7!

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Anko and I had just passed the guards at Konoha's gate, who waved us by, recognizing Anko, but staring curiously at me. I must not look the same as I had when I had left.

My teacher for the past year left me at the hospital, saying she needed a checkup. I wished her well, then continued on to the Hokage's tower.

Tsunade-shishou was sitting at her desk doing paperwork. When she looked up and saw me, her calligraphy brush fell out of her hand and her mouth dropped open.

"S-Sakura? My god, you're back!" She jumped up from her desk and engulfed me in a hug. I stiffened.

"_Don't touch me."_

"_I'm tainted."_

I had just spent a year in the wilderness practically by myself. Human contact wasn't a comforting thing after that long without it.

She let go almost immediately, and held me at arms length, gripping my shoulders and examining me – or most likely, examining my scars.

She ran her finger over the scar on my eye. I saw her wince slightly as she looked at all the other ones. Her eyes were filled with horror, and slight disgust.

I didn't like that. I was proud of my scars. They showed how strong I was.

"Sakura –," she started, but then her door opened.

I swung out of her grasp, popped open a flask at my hip and whipped the water out of it, falling into a stance much like the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist, and aimed my water spears at the person walking in the door.

It had taken me less than half a second to move.

The person in the door froze, and his eyes traveled over to me, and widened. Then – totally disregarding the deadly spears of water still aimed at him, rushed in and gave me a hug.

"N-Naruto." I gasped. He set me down and beamed at me.

"Sakura-chan! You're finally back! I missed you so much! And even though he doesn't admit it, the teme did too. Come on! We have to go meet up with him and -."

Naruto's sentence faded away as he actually looked at me – at my short, unruly hair, and my icy blue eyes, and my scar. His expression immediately turned to one of soft concern.

He pulled me into another hug, but this time more gently, and I didn't stiffen as I had with Tsunade.

It was nice to be hugged.

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8!

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I was home. I had showed them that I was strong. Whenever someone's eyes lingered on my scars, I was proud.

Whenever the Genin's stopped to watch me train with my water, they always left with whispers and gaping mouths (though how they managed to whisper and gape at the same time was beyond me).

Everyone knew of my strength. I proved myself on a daily basis now.

But there was still one person who didn't believe me. Who still thought me useless.

"_You're annoying."_

"_You're weak."_

I will prove to him that I am not weak.

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9!

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I had challenged him to a spar. That was nothing new, we sparred regularly. But he seemed to tell that something was different this time. That this wasn't just play.

I would prove to him.

We fought, him with his fire and me with my water.

Polar opposites.

Yin and yang.

Light and dark.

Whatever they called us.

_I am strong._

_I am not weak._

Naruto stood anxiously at the end of the field, a presence of death hanging in the air.

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10!

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I've done it. I've proved to him that I am not weak.

Now, I am truly strong.

But I guess all things come with a price. But it was worth it. I don't care for the price.

He believes me now. He knows that I am strong. Uchiha Sasuke admitted that I was strong. I was no longer annoying.

And so I died happily, at the hands of Uchiha Sasuke.

_I am strong._

**A/N: I know that was totally strange, and didn't make much sense, but I was testing out a new way of writing that I really like, and I gave it a try. Please tell me what you think!**


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